Economics undergraduates have topped a survey to find which university courses
have the most promiscuous students.

It may be known as the dismal science, but it seems that economics has a rather racier side.

Undergraduate economists were found to be the Casanovas of British students in a survey that discovered they had slept with an average of nearly five partners since starting university.

The poll’s results will come as a surprise to some, although tales are told of youthful romantic dalliances by some of Britain’s best-known economics graduates.

The BBC’s economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, is reported to have dated fellow former Oxford philosophy, politics and economics students Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, and Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, after leaving university. Ms Flanders has batted off questions about her alleged relationships with the politicians.

The survey by the StudentBeans.com website found that undergraduates studying economics had on average had 4.88 sexual partners since starting university.

Next most promiscuous were students of social work, community care and counselling (4.7 partners on average), marketing (4.57), leisure, hospitality, tourism and retail (4.56) and agriculture (4.44).

Engineers, business students, sports science undergraduates and social scientists also made the top ten.

Theologians, perhaps with their minds on more spiritual matters, came one from the bottom of the list of 43 subjects with an average of 2.13 sexual partners each.

However, the chastest students were found to be those on environmental science courses, who on average slept with 1.71 partners, only just over a third of the number tallied up by economists.

The survey of 4,656 students from more than 100 UK universities shows that traditionally glamorous subjects such as art or media studies do not necessarily confer sexual magnetism. Undergraduates in these subjects were placed in the bottom ten.

Other findings of the poll indicate that most of Britain’s students are less promiscuous than their reputation might suggest.

Six out of ten had slept with two or fewer people since starting their studies, of whom 5% had no sexual partners and 39% had only one. Nearly a third said they were not currently having sex.

Just 9% of undergraduates said sex was the most important thing in their life at university. By contrast, 52% rated friends top, 29% said studying was their key priority and 11% considered Facebook their over-riding preoccupation.